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A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED DECEMBER 22d, 1850, 



ON THE 



TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 



BY WM. DELOSS LOVE, 

PASTOR OF THE HOWE STREET CHURCH, NEW HAVEN, CT, 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST '^ 




NEW HAVEN: 

STORER & STONE, PRINTERS. 
1851. 



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s B R M ^^ 



Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God ; 
the powers that bo are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the pow- 
er, resisteth the ordinance of God. — Romans, xiii: 1,2. 

But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it he right in the sight of 
God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak 
the things which we have seen and heard. — Acts, iv : ]9, 20. 

Then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather 
than men. — Acts, v : 29. 

These passages are all equally inspired. The duties which 
they teach therefore, cannot be inconsistent with each other. 
The command to obey earthly rulers, and that to obey God rather 
than men, imply no contradiction ; but since they cannot both be 
taken in the absolute, universal sense, the limitation must be with 
the first, not with the second. 

The obligation to obey God rather than men can have no ex- 
ception. That of being subject to "the powers that be," must 
always have exception when the commands of men stand opposed 
to those of God. This will appear if we examine the circum- 
stances which called forth the several passages of the text. 

The injunction, " Let every soul be subject unto the higher 
powers," was addressed to the Church originally planted at Rome, 
composed mostly of converted Jews. The Jews of that day had 
long suffered oppression from " the higher powers" of the Roman 
nation. There was among them a wide-spread disposition to re- 
volt. They knew that God was the especial Governor of their 
own people ; that He had from the time of Abraham been their 
God, while all the nations around them, some of whom had been 
their conquerors and oppressors, were absolute heathen. 

Esteeming themselves so superior to others in privilege and 
knowledge, so peculiarly the favorites of Heaven, the doctrine 
was prevalent among them that they ought not to obey heathen 
magistrates. It was their maxim to own no king but God, and 
under Him, no ruler but one of their own nation. For this their 
law gave some show of authority. " One from among thy breth- 
ren shall thou set king over thee : thou mayest not set a stranger 
over thee, which is not thy brother."* 

Josephus, the most eminent of their uninspired historians, says 
that the Pharisees were greatly opposed to heathen rulers, and so 
inculcated their views as to lead to open resistance and fighting. j- 

* Dent, xvii : 15. t Ant. xvii : 2. 



Believing, as the Jews did, that they were the people of God, it 
might be expected they would deem all other authority over 
them as usurpation. It is certain they were very refractory 
under the Roman yoke. In Jerusalem, for many years, nothing 
but fear of punishment kept them in tolerable subjection. Their 
turbulence in Rome grew to such a degree at one time, that the 
Emperor Claudius issued an edict banishing all Jews from the 
city. Even after the conversion of a Jew, it might be expected 
that he would be more or less influenced by his former views on 
this subject, and it might honestly be with him a question whether 
or to M hat extent he should obey heathen rulers. His doubt 
would be increased by the fact that the civil and religious insti- 
tutions of the heathen nations were united. Their whole system 
of religion was founded in idolatry. Idolatrous practices were 
thrust upon him by civil authority on every side. He might not 
readily make the distinction between being properly subject to 
" the higher powers" in all his civil relations, and not uniting in or 
countenancing the heathen worship. 

The Gentile as well as the Jewish converts of the Church at 
Rome would be likely to hesitate on this question. They would 
loathe the heathenism they had forsaken. Knowing that it was 
the national religion, and seeing it intermingled with every thing 
in the administration of the government, they would be in danger 
of improper resistance to governmental authority. The ditliculty 
of the question would be increased by the fact that the supremo 
authority of the Roman Empire was frequently passing from one 
person to another by the most foul and unjust means, and that 
" the higher powers" were generally of the most vicious charac- 
ter. To usurpation each emperor added tyranny. Caligula was 
murdered on account of his tyrannical conduct. Claudius, his 
successor, was poisoned to make place for Nero, the then reign- 
ing emperor, who proved to be one of the most depraved and 
beastly of men, and a most hardened and odious tyrant. 

Amid these agitations and changes consequent on vice and op- 
pression, while rebellions were frequent, and factions were nu- 
merous, especially among the unconverted Jews who would be 
more likely than others to influence the Christian Church, there 
was occasion for anxiety on the part of the Apostle, lest those to 
whom he addressed his letter should be drawn into improper po- 
sitions and political alliances, which would cause themselves need- 
less difficulties, and bring upon the cause they had espoused the 
reproach of worldly ambition and evil design against existing au- 
thorities. In this state of things, the command, " Let every soul 
be subject unto the higher powers," was a needful revelation of 
duty to the Christian Church. But it had respect, you will ob- 
serve, from the nature of the case, to their civil relations to the 
government under which they lived. 

While there were such frequeut changes in the supreme author- 
ity, brought about by such wicked means, and while every ruler 
was a tyrant, it was plainly tneir duty to take sides with none. 



While they had no power to establish another and better gov- 
ernment, factious opposition to the reigning powers would have 
been worse than useless to themselves, and a complete misinter- 
pretation of their religion. 

The command of obedience, however, did not have the least 
reference to any conduct where the will of God had been previ- 
ously revealed to the contrary. Otherwise it would have been a 
command counter to a command. The requirement to be subject 
to the higher powers, did not have reference to cases which after- 
wards occurred, where the supreme authority of the land de- 
manded of the Christians a renunciation of their religion and 
compliance with the doctrines and customs of heathenism. Of 
course, since God had forbidden idolatry, the command of sub- 
jection to the higher powers did not imply the duty of obedience 
to a heathen ruler when he enjoined idolatry. Christ had made 
it the duty of his disciples to confess him before men; the com- 
mand of his apostle therefore did not require of those disciples a 
denial of his nau>e in order to escape martyrdom. When bloody 
persecution came, the entire belief, profession and life, of every 
Christian, were constantly in disobedience to the higher powers. 
Still obedient in all other relations, there was not a moment when 
he did not disobey in respect to his religion. No human author- 
ity could make binding any infraction of the rights of a fellow 
creature. None could impose the obligation to violate the great 
law of love ; toward God, to love Him with all the heart ; toward 
men, to love them as ourselves. 

It was then no disputed doctrine with Jews or Christians, or even 
with many Heathen, that disobedience to civil authority is some- 
times a duty. It had come down to them, clothed with all authority 
and majesty, from their venerated ancestors. It was as memora- 
ble and old as Daniel in the lion's den, or as the fugitive slaves from 
Egypt. Hence, as the primitive Christians were themselves to be 
brought to the painful necessity of disobeying men in order to 
obey God, divine wisdom foresaw their danger, and temptation 
to open and entire rebellion, and kindly sent a revelation of duty 
precisely to meet the case. 

It did not abrogate what was before revealed, and what had 
been practiced by the holiest men. So far as it anticipated the 
day of persecution, it Avas rather supplementary to previous in- 
struction. It contemplated disobedience to the higher powers 
with the penalty of martyrdom, and therefore enjoined strict and 
unwavering obedience in every lawful relation and instance of 
command. In connection with the Apostle's direction to obey 
rulers, he further says, " They are God's ministers ;" that is, in his 
providence he directs and controls their appointment. But it can- 
not be that the Servant is superior to his Master. When God 
commands one thing, he does not change his command, even 
though all earthly rulers, ordained by him, issue a contrary edict. 

As the younger Edwards has said in his discourse on obedience 
to rulers, the Apostle in his direction to be subject to the higher 



6 

powers, " Only gives the general rules of obedience and submis- 
sion." It is plain there was no necessity at that time to specify 
the exception. 

But a notable case of exception is given in the remaining pas- 
sages of the text. As Peter and John, soon after the day of Pen- 
tecost, went up to the temple for prayer, they healed a lame man. 
The miracle drew together a large company of wondering people 
to whom Peter preached repentance and salvation through Christ. 
The rulers of the Jews were offended with his discourse, and put 
the apostles in prison. On the next day they brought them out 
for examination, when Peter affirmed that the impotent man was 
healed by the name of Jesus, and that in no other name could 
men be saved. Upon this the great council of the Jews consult 
as to what shall be done with Peter and John. They are at first 
in doubt, whether to put them to death, or to imprison them, or 
to scourge them, or whether simply to command them, as rulers 
of the people, that henceforth th^y speak no more in this name, 
and to threaten them with punishment if they disobeyed. They 
resolved upon the last course, and addressed to them their com- 
mand and threatening. " But Peter and John answered and said 
unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken 
unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but 
speak the things which we have seen and heard." Then the ru- 
lers further threatened them and let them go, not daring to punish 
them through fear of the people. Observe now the condition of 
the apostles. They were commanded to preach the gospel no 
more. The command was not advice. To it was attached a se- 
vere penalty. Disobedience might result in death. The com- 
mand issued from those in higli authority, the Sanhedrim of the 
Jews, a body of seventy-one or seventy-two of the chief person- 
ages of the land, to whom were intrusted the principal affairs 
of the nation. It was the same body, and doubtless they were 
the same men, before whom our Savior was arraigned, and by 
whom condemned before he was delivered to the Roman gover- 
nor. In their presence this same Peter had denied his Lord, in 
seeming obedience to his rulers. They possessed vast influence 
and power. To all their decisions at his trial and death Jesus had 
meekly complied. Such was the divine example before the apos- 
tles. What course now will they adopt? Will they in this case 
deem themselves obligated to be subject unto the powers that be ? 
They had previously received the command, "Go ye into 'all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature." This command 
proceeded from the higher authority. It was the " higher law." 
The command of human rulers conflicts with that of God. God 
is right and men are wrong. He must be obeyed ; they must be 
disobeyed. 

The next we hear of Peter and John, they are gone unto their 
own company, with whom they are praying for grace and strength 
to disobey the higher powers. " They lifted up their voice to 
God with one accord and said, *** Lord behold their threatenings, 



and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak 
thy word. ***And when they had prayed, the place was shaken 
where they were assembled together ; and they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with 
boldness. *** And with great power gave the apostles witness of 
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus ; and great grace was upon 
them all." Few subjects for prayer have ever been signalized by 
the divine blessing as this relative to disobeying rulers. 

Soon the Sanhedrim begin to put their threats into execution. 
Violent hands are laid on the apostles, and they are committed to 
prison. " But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison 
doors and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in 
the temple to the people all the words of this life." It is true, 
*' There is no povi^er but of God : the powers that be are ordained 
of God." Still, here is a repetition of the divine commad in di- 
rect opposition to the command of the higher powers. Hence, 
He who ordained the higher powers is not pleased when they 
command wrong, and has himself commanded that they should 
not be obeyed by doing wrong. Early in the morning the apos- 
tles entered into the temple and taught. They were arrested by 
the officers of government and brought before the council and 
the Senate or elders of the children of Israel. There they were 
charged with disobedience to the rulers. " Then Peter and the 
other apostles answered and said. We ought to obey God rather, 
than men." And they immediately charged the higher powers 
with the murder of Christ, and preached even to them the gospel 
they had by them been forbidden to proclaim. The Sanhedrim 
and Senate were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them. 
They did not however dare so much, but gave them a severe 
beating and another command not to preach, and let them go. 
Still these same apostles went on in disobedience to their tempo- 
ral rulers, " And daily in the temple, and in every house, they 
ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.'' 

Observe, these apostles never used violence ; they never threat- 
ened bloodshed ; they carried no deadly weapons of defence ; but 
they firmly and to the last refused to do wrong ; they persisted in 
disobedience to the higher powers rather than violate conscience, 
and when the penalty for transgression of human laws was visited 
upon them, they offered no resistance, but meekly and quietly 
bore it all. 

Such, I contend, in similar circumstances, is the duty of all. 
The duty of subjection to the powers that be is general. Com- 
mands to disobey God, or do what is morally wrong, are always 
exceptions. On no other principle can the last two passages of 
the text be reconciled with the first. 

But it appears that ail are not of this opinion. It is held by 
some that the higher powers should always be obeyed without 
exception, unless it be where revolution and the overthrow of the 
existing government, and the establishment of other higher pow- 
ers are possible and justifiable. It is contended that the law of the 



powers that be is always the law of God ; that there is no_ higher 
law; that we are to obey the existing government come what 
may, lead to what it will; that we are to obey it, even by the 
violation of the law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" 
that where governmental commands are laid upon us, we are to 
do them with no hesitation, taking it as granted, that thus we shall 
do right ; that we are to do what would otherwise be acknow- 
ledged wrong for the sake of the State, or the compact of States. 
But clearly such was not the course of the apostles. Their con- 
duct was directly the opposite. They had no hope or thought of 
overthrowing the existing government. When they were first 
forbidden to preach the gospel, they might have said, " This com- 
mand of the powers ordained of God is more recent than that of 
our Savior, and is the divine will. Christ never told us to preach 
when commanded by our rulers not to preach. We can leave 
the land and preach where these rulers have no authority. It is 
certainly very wrong for us rebel against the higher powers 
from whom we have ever received so many blessings, and who 
have for ages stood as mediator between God and the people." 

But they said no such. things. They exhorted one another with 
no eloquent speeches on the importance of civil government. 
They pronounced no encomiums on the State. They imaged no 
horrid pictures of human governments broken up, civil authority 
prostrate, and anarchy rampant through the nation. They, or at 
least their divine Master, was fully aware of these evils; but even 
to hazard them afforded no reason for the suppressson of the gos- 
pel, or the stepping aside from opposition to preach itsomevvhere 
else. It was sufficient for them to do right and leave governments 
and nations with the Lord. 

Here, however, it may be well to introduce the opinions of 
others, who certainly are qualified to judge if we hesitate at our 
own convictions. Let us begin with Calvin, the ablest writer and 
soundest reasoner of his age. He says, " In the obedience which 
we have shown to be due to the authority of governors, it is al- 
ways necessary to make one exception, and that is entitled to our 
first attention — that it do not seduce us from our obedience to 
Him, to whose will the desire of all kings ought to be subject, to 
whose decrees all their commands ought to yield, to whose maj- 
esty all their sceptres ought to submit. And, indeed, how pre- 
posterous it would be for us, with a view to satisfy men, to incur 
the displeasure of Him on whose account we yield obedience to 
men I * * * * If they command anything against Him, it 
ought not to have the least attention ; nor, in this case, ought we 
to pay any regard to all that dignity attached to magistrates ; to 
which no injury is done when it is subjected to the unrivalled and 
supreme power of God. On this principle, Daniel denied that 
he had committed any crime against the king in disobeying his 
impious decree, because the king had exceeded the limits of his 
office, and had not only done an injury to men, but, by raising his 
arm against God, had degraded his own authority. On the other 



hand, the Israelites arc condemned for having been too submis- 
sive to the impious edict of their king. For when Jerol)oamhad 
made his golden calves, in compliance with his will, they deserted 
the temple of God, and revolted to new superstitions. Their pos- 
terity conformed to the decrees of their idolatrous kings with 
the same facility. The prophet severely condemns them for hav- 
ing willingly walked after the commandment. * * * * Since 
this edict has been proclaimed by that celestial herald, Peter,-^ 
' We ought to obey God rather than men' — let us console our- 
selves with this thought, that we truly perform the obedience 
which God requires of us, when we suffer any thing rather than 
deviate from piety."* The younger Edwards says, " The truth 
is, and the whole spirit of Scripture sustains it, that rulers are 
bound to rule in the fear of God and for the good of the people ; 
and if they do not, then in resisting them, we are doing God 
service."! 

President Dwight says. " Subjects are bound to obey magis- 
trates, when acting agreeably to the laws, in all cases not contrary 
to the will of God, as unfolded in the Scriptures. * * * * 
The directions of Peter and Paul cannot be supposed to require 
our obedience to those commands of a ruler, which are opposed 
to the law of God. Whether we should obey God rather than 
men, can never be seriously made a question of common sense, 
any more than by piety."J Dr. Emmons, in his discourse on 
obedience to civil magistrates, has the following : " It is the plain 
dictate of reason, that all submission to human authority is abso- 
lutely limited. * * * * Subjects have the right of private 
judgment, and may, in certain cases, refuse submission to those in 
authority, and even destroy them."|| When these words were 
uttered, the right of private judgment had a meaning that was 
not philosophized into mist, or frittered away to an echo ; the 
days had not come to scoft' at freedom of conscience, or at the 
obligation to obey it. 

Robert Hall, in comments on a part of our text, (Rom. xiii : 1,2,) 
declares, — ■" The limits of every duty must be determined by its 
reasons, and the only one assigned here, or that can be assigned 
for submission to civil authority, are its tendency to do good : 
whenever therefore this shall cease to be the case, submission 
becomes absurd, having no longer any rational view. But at what 
time this evil shall be judged to have arrived, or what remedy it 
may be proper to apply, Christianity does not decide, but leaves 
to be determined by an appeal to natural reason and right." We 
are not then to refuse obedience only where there is an express 
divine command to the contrary, but must appeal often " to nat- 
ural reason and right" for a decision of our duty. Thomas Ar- 
nold, in his sermon on Rom. xiii, speaking of human governments 
says, "They have commanded crime in some instances, and for- 



* Institutes of Religion, B. iv., chap. 20, sec. 32. t Works, vol. ii., p. 245. 

\ Theology, vol. 3, ser. c.\iT. || Works, vol. 2, ser. ix. 

9 



10 

bidden what was a duty. In such cases, of course there can he 
no hesitation how we should act. We ought to obey God rather 
than man ; and disobedience to the government is but obedience 
to Him who is the Lord and Governor of us all." 

President Wayland, in his chapter on the duties of citizens, af- 
firms, " Passive obedience, in many cases, would be manifestly 
wrong. We have no right to obey an unrighteous law, since we 
must obey God at all hazards." But he discountenances resist- 
ance by force, and recommends, " Suffering in the cause of 
right."* 

Professor Hodge, in his commentary on Romans xiii, makes the 
following forcible remarks. "The obedience which the Scrip- 
tures command us to render to our rulers is not unlimited ; there 
are cases in which disobedience is a duty. This is evident, firsts 
from the very nature of the case. The comjnand to obey mag- 
istrates is, from its nature, a command to obey them as magis- 
trates in the exercise of their rightful authority. They are not 
to be obeyed as priests or as parents, but as civil rulers. No one 
doubts that the precept, 'Children, obey your parents in all things,' 
is a command to obey them in the exercise of their rightful pa- 
rental authority, and imposes no obligation to implicit and pas- 
sive obedience. A parent who should claim the power of a sov- 
ereign over his children, would have no right to their obedience. 
The case is still plainer with regard to the command, ' Wives 
submit to your own husbands.' Secondly, from the fact that the 
same inspired men who enjoin, in such general terms, obedience 
to rulers, themselves uniformly and openly disobeyed them when- 
ever their commands were inconsistent with other and higher 
obligations. ' We ought to obey God rather than men,' was the 
principle which the early Christians avowed, and on which they 
acted. They disobeyed the Jewish and heathen authorities 
whenever they required them to do any thing contrary to the 
will of God. There are cases, therefore, in which disobedience 
is a duty. * # * * 

" No command to do any thing morally wrong can be binding ; 
nor can any which transcends the rightful authority of the power 
whence it emanates. What that rightful authority is, must be 
determined by the institutions and laws of the land, or from pre- 
scription and usage, or from the nature and design of the office 
with which the magistrate is invested. The right of deciding on 
all these points, and determining where the obligation to obedi- 
ence ceases, and the duty of resistance begins, must, from the 
nature of the case, rest with the subject, and not with the ruler. 
The Apostles and early Christians decided this point for them- 
selves, and did not leave the decision with the Jewish or Roman 
authorities. Like all other questions of duty, it is to be decided 
on our responsibility to God and our fellow men." Two things in 

* Mor. Science, pp. 366-7, 



\ 



11 

these observations should be distinctly noticed. First, disobedi- 
ence to rulers is sometimes a duty. Secondly, the question, When 
ought we to disobey ? it is not for the civil authority to decide. 
The right and obligation to judge for ourselves we cannot disin- 
lierit or throw oti^ if we would. 

I add a few words from Dr. William R. Williams. "Christian 
patience must obey God, rather than man, and show itself, not by 
obeying the wrong law, and thus evading the penalty, but by 
breaking the law, to obey God, and then braving for man's sake 
penally of confiscation, incarceration and death, if exile can not 
release from it." These are brief extracts from the writings of 
many of the most eminent philosophers and theologians of dif- 
ferent ages and countries, on the question of submission to civil 
authorities. To their testimony might be added that of every 
noted commentator who has ever written on this subject. Whit- 
by, MacKnight, Doddridge, Clark, Gill. Bloomfield, Chalmers, 
Olshausen, Tholuck, Trollope, Stuart, Barnes, representatives of 
almost every Christian land, and of all the various schools in 
theology, hold but one language on this subject, and that, sub- 
stantially in the language of Prof. Stuart — " Nothing can be 
plainer than that the .subjection urged in Rom. xiii, cannot beex- 
tended to cases where the commission of a moral evil is de- 
manded." Or, in the words of Barnes on the same passage, — 
" There were cases when it was right to resist the laws. This the 
christian religion clearly taught. When the laws interfered with 
the rights of conscience, when they demanded the worship of 
idols, or any moral wrong, then it was their duty to refuse sub- 
mission." 

With such an amount of evidence before us, from men of such 
high intellectual worth and moral power, can we longer hesitate 
on this question ? But to the descendants of the Puritans, as 
many of you are, to those who cherish with sacred affection and 
honor the memory of our Pilgrim Fathers, there is yet another 
species of argument on this subject. What more shall I say, than 
to remind you of the reasons that impelled their immigration to 
this wilderness land, and remind you also that this day is the An- 
niversary of the JancUng of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, to 
gain your assent to the doctrine, that, disobedience to tyrants over 
the conscience is the hallowed service of God. Two hundred and 
thirty years ago to-day, landed on these then inhospitable shores, 
far away at the world's end, a little company of one hundred 
souls, to find an asylum from religious oppression. Twice before 
had the attempt been made to plant colonies on the American 
Continent, but from mercenary and selfish purposes, and had 
failed. Our fathers came with the high and holy purpose of ser- 
ving God in their own generation, and of planting religious and 
civil institutions of freedom, which should perpetuate the full 
blessings of the gospel to all their posterity. In their native land 
they had been forbidden freedom of conscience. Some had been 
denied, as were Peter and John, the privilege of preaching the 



12 

word ; some had sufl'ercd imprisonment for opinion's sake ; some, 
rather than relinquish their religion, had chosen exile from their 
land and homes, with the penalty of death hanging over them if 
Ihey returned. In 1592, a law was passed in England requiring 
all persons to attend the established worship under penalty of 
banishment, and if they returned, of death. Among those who 
felt they could not conscientiously obey the law, were John Rob- 
inson and his congregation, in the north of England. They 
calmly but boldly determined to violate the lavv and suffer the 
penalty if they must. Finding it necessary to retract their pur- 
pose of disobedience, or be thrust into prison, or be forced aWay 
by the hand of violence from their native country, they chose 
exile in Holland. Once they attempted to sail, but after they 
were embarked, thi-ough the treachery of the captain of their 
vessel and a plot of English officers, they were led on shoi*e and 
put in prison. At length released, they made a second attempt. 
The men succeeded in making their escape, but at the cost of leav- 
ing, many of them, their wives and children ; the former to be 
dragged from one magistrate to another for abuse and trial ; the 
latter to suffer from fright and hunger and cold. But at last, 
through the mercy of God, they all arrived at their chosen place 
of banishment, and finally, by Divine Providence, many of them 
Were led to the land that now blesses us with homes, here, by vol- 
untary confederacy, to lay the foundations of free institutions 
and a free government. 

They were the first to break away from the oppressive institu- 
tions of the old world ; they made the first infraction upon the 
old doctrine, that government is for the benefit of rulers and 
sovereigns, and not for the people ; that thrones are for kings and 
not for subjects. They taught and demonstrated that there can 
be a church without a bishop, and a state without a king. De- 
scendants of the Pilgrims, children of the Puritans, while to-day 
the blood of your fathers courses your veins, are their spirit and 
principles enthroned in your hearts and governing your lives ? 
There is a subject now at is?ns with this American people, which 
may test us on this important question. Do you believe that all 
men are created free and equal, that they are endovVed'with in- 
alienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness? How can you have ever heard of the Pilgrims, and 
«of believe it? You believe that '• God hath made of one blood 
all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth."* 
You believe therefore that man has no right because 

" He finds his fellow guilty of a skin 
Not colored his own ; and having power 
' T' enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause 

To doom and devote him as his lawful prey." 

You believe that God has done right to make all men brethren, 

* Acts, xvii, 26. 



13 

and that men can only do right by dwelling together as brethren ; 
that what God has ordained is best ; that no philosophy or system 
of expediency can make it better. You believe then that the col- 
ored man who was stolen from Africa, or whose father was sto- 
len, and who is now held a slave, has a right to himself, that by a 
deed received from the Almighty he oions himself. You believe 
that no human law can take away that right, that no enactments 
can crush out of the soul its inherent possession, that it can be 
forfeited only by crime. You would disdain yourselves to hold a 
fellow being as a slave ; your conscience would not rest, while in 
that relation, a single night. Any other spirit has not descended 
from the Pilgrims. 

But there are those who are equal to the wrong, not simply of 
holding and wishing to hold their fellow men in bondage, but of 
wishing to persuade or coerce you to help them hold their slaves 
and to restore them to bondage at public expense when they es- 
cape. " The powers that be" have attempted to legislate you in- 
to the duty of aiding to arrest the fugitive slave and restore him 
to his master.* More, you are forbidden to act toward him the 
part of the good Samaritan, with any hope of saving him from 
slavery. If this stolen and fugitive brother come to your door at 
midnight, begging for shelter and bread, you are commanded not 
to receive him with the design to conceal him from the blood 
hounds that may be on his track. Here lives beside you an un- 
fortunate fugitive. Since he dared to escape from slavery, he 
has married a virtilous woman, and is now rearing a happy fam- 
ily of children. He is moral and industrious. He has tasted the 
preciousness of the gospel ; he has passed from death unto life, 
and is now a freeman indeed. He is a brother with you in the 
same church. He is respected and beloved. His sphere of influ- 
ence and usefulness is by no means limited, especially among 
those whose color or blood could be no guarantee against Ameri- 
can slavery. He is devotedly attached to his wife and children, 

*" Sec. 5. And be it further enacted. That it shall be the duty of all marshals and 
deputy-marshals, to obey and execute all warrants and precepts issued under the provi- 
sions of this act, when to them directed ; * * * * * * 

* * *■ and all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist 
in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required, 
as aforesaid, for that purpose ; and said warrants shall run and be executed by said offi- 
cers anywhere in the State within which they are issued. 

" Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, Tiiat any person who shall knowingly and wil- 
lingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or 
persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from-arre^tingsuch fugitive from service or 
labor, cither with or without process as aforesaid ; * * * « * 

* * * or shall aid, abet, or assist such person, so owing service or la- 
bor as aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from such claimant, his agent or attor- 
ney, or other person or persons, legally authorized as aforesaid ; or shall harbor or con- 
ceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice 
or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from service as aforesaid, shall, 
for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and 
imprisonment not exceeding six months ; ***** and 
shall, moreover, forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages, to the party injured by such il- 
legal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as afore- 
said ;" etc. 



14 

and all his affection is warmly reciprocated. Separation by vio- 
lence and forever, will crash hearts. But the slave-hunter comes. 
He has found his prey. If once his fatal grasp is fixed on that 
poor man, vain will be all the entreaties of love from those wed- 
ded hearts, for either justice or mercy. He will be torn from his 
family and friends and home ; the slaveholder's vengeance will 
consign him to some hard fate. You are called to assist in ar- 
resting your fugitive neighbor. His wife weeps scalding tears, 
and wrings her hands in anguish. His children scz'eam with ter- 
ror. Violent hands and deadly weapons are there. If you now 
obey the law, that man may prematurely die on some far South- 
ern field of hard toil, and be thrown into a careless grave, with 
no wife or children ever to know or mourn by his resting place. 
Will you now lift up your strong arms and clinch this neighbor 
and brother whom you are to love as yourself, to whom you are 
to do as ye would that men should do to you, and thrust him into 
cruel slavery which shall know no relief from anguish, no end 
but death ? The question is not whether you will buy him back 
from slavery. Will you return him to it ? Will you obey God 
or man 1 Man says, "Seize the slave ; curse him by your deed." 
God says, "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant 
which is escaped from his master unto thee."* Can you deliver a 
fellow mortal into slavery ? Will your conscience suffer the 
enormity ? No ! Be worthy of your Pilgrim sires. Peaceably 
bear the penalty of a law that commands sin, as they did. Go to 
prison as they did. Go to prison as the apostles did. Die rather 
than do wrong. 

" But what," you say, " of the national compact ?" I have 
made no compact to return the fugitive.f I never will. If I had, 

* Deut. xxiii, 15, 16. 

t When I became a citizen of the U.S., and took the oath to be true and faithful to the 
Constitution, it was not understood by me or the imposer of the oath, that I thereby 
bound myself to assist in arresting and returning the fugitive slave, or became obligated 
not to extend to hmi that gospel beneficence which I would that others should bestow 
upon me in like circumstances. The obligations of my oath go no farther than was 
then understood by me and the imposer of the oath. The law of 1793, forthe recovery 
of fugitive slaves, laid upon the magistrates and other officers under the State govern- 
ments, the duty of carrying it into effect. But in the case of Priggs vs. the State of Penn- 
sylvania, eight or nine years ago, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that 
officers under the State governments were under no obligation to execute the law, and 
that Congress had no power to impose the duty upon them. After this decision, many 
of the Morthern States passed laws making it a crime for their officers to return or assist 
in returning the fugitive. Then there were no officers authorized to execute the law ex- 
cept a few under the United States' government. 

But according to said decision of the Supreme Court, the master was authorized to 
seize his slave wherever he found him, if without breach of the peace, and to carry him 
back without process, or trial, or proof that he was his property, of any kind whatever. 
Of course all persons were forbidden to prevent his so doing. But it was generally or 
universally understood that neither the Constitution nor the law of 93 required any mere 
citizen to catch the slaveholder's runaway property for him. Such being the facts, when 
I became a citizen of Conn., the imposer of the oath, be it the State or the General 
Government, was just as innocent o the thought as I was, that I then bound myself to 
be a slave catcher. 

The doctrine and the law that we must all hold ourselves in readiness to hunt down 
the fugitive, or to hunt down a freeman falsely declared to be a fugitive by some villain, 



15 

I would forswear it to-day. Compacts and laws that require me 
to sin, may take care of themselves ; and God will then take care 
of me and my country and my country's laws. 

Faith requires us to do right and trust in God. He is able to 
still the elements and make new nations and new worlds. Shall 
I, for these declarations, be charged with lawlessness ? 1 am ad- 
vocating the violation of no real law. Human laws must always 
be subservient to the divine. The Deity being independent may 
prescribe laws to himself, but man being dependent must abide by 
the laws prescribed to him by his Creator. If he wish to give 
those laws more particular definitions, they must never be enlarged 
beyond the original enactments. God, in a word, is the author 
of all law. And when human law transcends the limits prescribed 
by the Deity, and thereby contravenes the law of God, that mo- 
ment it loses the character of law, and is no longer binding on 
one of our race. Says Sir Wm. Blackstone, of the law of nature, 
" No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this." In- 
stancing the case of murder he says, " If any human law should 
allow or enjoin us to commit it. we are bound to transgress that 
human law, or else we must offend both the natural and the di- 
vine." Of the natural rights, life and liberty, he says again, " No 
human legislature, has power to abridge or destroy them, unless 
the man himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture." 
If then our laws impose upon us the feigned obligation to restore 
the fugitive slave to the claimant, we are bound to transgress those 
laws ; not by resistance ; not by shedding blood ; but by the re- 
fusal of obedience. And why should this be thought worse than 
for our Revolutionary Sires to refuse obedience to Great Britain ? 
Why is it worse than for the Puritans to worship God where they 
pleased, and not where royal authority commanded ? Why 
worse than to die martyrs to truth ? Why worse than for Soc- 
rates to drink the poisonous hemlock for instructing the Athenian 
youth ? No matter if it be urged that the covenant entered into 
by the States is of a solemn nature and made under peculiar cir- 
cumstances ; the Great Ruler has established a covenant — di prior 
covenant between us and the fugitive slave. No matter if it be 
said that the foundations of our government are laid deep and 
strong, and must not be moved ; there is a government whose 
foundations are laid deeper and stronger, and cannot be moved. 
Arnold was not bound to deliver his country to its enemies be- 
cause he had signed the traitor's oath. Nor was Judas bound to 

have received their birth since my oath was taken. Hence, I have made no compact to 
be a slave hunter. But, however this may be, even though I had taken an oath to re- 
turn the fugitive, I should be bound to violate or retract it, because it would be an un- 
lawful oath. As President Wayland remarks in his chapter on veracity !n respect to the 
future, " No man can be under obligation to violate obligation ; for this would be to 
suppose a man to be guilty for not being guilty. Much less can he be under obligatioa 
to violate his obligations to God." 

For a discussion of the animus imponentis, or obligation accordant to the mind of the 
one imposing the oath, see Quar. Chris. Spect. Vol. vii. No. 1. See also Dr. Paley 
and Pros. Wayland on " Promises." 



10 

betray his Master with a kiss, because he had bartered the Hfe of 
his Savior for thirty pieces of silver. Nor is the American citi- 
zen bound to remand the fugitive slave to chains, because he or 
his ancestors joined hands w^ith the tyrant to reduce God's free- 
men to bondage. 

" 'Tis a great sin to swear unto a sin, 
But greater sin to keep a sinful oath." 

Our argument on this subject has been as follows: First, it lias 
been shown from Scripture, that it is duty to obey God rather 
than men, and after this to be subject unto the higher powers ; 
that whenever the laws of God and men conflict, we should diso- 
bey men and peaceably sutler the penalty, or rather, obey God 
and then obey men by suffering the penalty. SeconJly, the tes- 
timony of the ablest ethical writers and moral philosophers, and 
of the profoundest Biblical scholars has been brought forward in 
favor of the same doctrine. Thirdly, it has been substantiated by 
the theory and practice of the Fathers of New England, the Pil- 
grims and Puritans. And fourthly, our duty has been, it is 
hoped, stated and illustrated by reference to the actual facts of 
our condition. If these positions are correct, then let us make no 
agreement or coinpact* wlierehy we shall he withheld fro7n the actual 
expression of our sentiments on all proper occasions. Let us enter 
into no league to suppress God's truth, 

" Though crushed to earth 'twill rise again, 
The eternal years of God are hers." 

If we have an unrighteous law or an unrighteous compact in 
our Constitution, while we obey it by suffering the penalty, not 
by doing its sin, let us boldly but calmly seek its change. Hu- 
man constitutions, like their authors, are imperfect. If the wicked 
rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, let us know that God 
can stop even the mouths of lions. If all we desire is not ac^ 
complished in our time, let us leave our work for God to finish 
when we are gone. 

* At the time this discourse was delivered, a call was in circulation for a meeting of 
the citizens of New Haven, ' to express their united opposition to any further agitation 
of the Compromise Measures adopted at the last Session of Congress, or of the subject 
of slavery in any form.' 



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